Did everybody get that? (over here).

(Did anybody get that?)

I'll pass on the berries and save like 10 calories. I'm not yet ready to plump up like Johannes.

-Daniel

hahahahahahahaha! Took me a minute!

Cool! You got it!
(And winsome too!)

BTW: It gave me great pleasure that Chris immediately started eating it.

P.S. I might as well show 'the answer':




The 'inspiration' was that it was his wife's birthday.
(And that this had been his piece in the finals.)

I was going to make a pun, "Berry, raisins and fudge on a Theme by Handel", but then it suddenly dawned on me that you had already done that.

Berry good, Mark!

I didn't get before. I assumed that there are strange desserts in USA. But I get it now haha I mean

ok so you really did manage to convince a restaurant to make this dessert?

I was wondering why you had mentioned such a weird dessert. I didn't get it until you posted the front cover

Thanks for asking.

I had to RUN OUT for some of the ingredients.
Which was tough, because it was about 11 PM and just about every place was closed.

I knew that the restaurant we were in had ice cream and chocolate fudge. And I knew that the really tough part was going to be the raisins. I got up from the table and took the waitperson aside, and asked if they had raisins. Came the dreaded answer: no.

I went back to the table and excused myself, as casually as possible. There was a yogurt place next door which was still open for a few more minutes, so I bolted to there. They had strawberries, but no raisins there either.

Across the street there was a gas station with one of those mini-marts. I knew that a mini-mart would have those little boxes of raisins.

But the gas station was closed.
So now I'm sprinting all over the street, at 11 PM, looking for raisins .....Christopher Shih and his wife (not to mention my wife) sitting in the restaurant and maybe wondering what the heil I was doing, but hopefully not thinking about it too much.

I saw across this big intersection and halfway down the next block, there was a supermarket -- and it seemed to be open!

Paydirt.

So now I turn up the sprint to full gear, doing like 100 yards in 9.3 seconds .....and I buy my raisins. Also some little candles -- I was lucky that they had black-and-white striped ones that made them look sort of like piano keyboards.

So now I sprint back down the block and across the intersection, trying a little bit not to get run over by a few trucks, I go back into the yogurt store for the strawberries, then walk back into the restaurant, as calmly as possible under the circumstances, and get the dish of ice cream with chocolate fudge from the waitress, and start arranging the other stuff on it. My wife still has no idea what I'm doing. When I've got it all put together, I step over to Chris and his wife (they were right next to my wife), I motion for a little silence and I make the presentation.

They sort of got it.

Best part of it was, Chris immediately started eating it.

I knew it was a lovely pun, and I figured Handel and fugue, but I didn't get it all til I saw the cover.
I think it was delightful that you took the trouble to run about and get the extra bits!

What fun! - Sounds like it was the grande finale of a really splendid day!

Mark, you are an absolutely bonkers raving mad crazy guy. That's a compliment by the way I do admire someone who takes humour so seriously. "They sort of got it" - I hope they got it - bit of an anticlimax otherwise. I imagine that competitors can be a bit disinhibited after an adrenaline-charged week of competing. I'm sure you'll return to sanity and mundanity soon enough.

And would you be so kind as to remind us when the VC clips are moved to youtube. I wont be able to view them until then, but am very much looking forward to it. Thanks in advance

I got it, Mark. I was just too embarrassed to say anything.

-Jason


As you would say:
p.s. Nice job!

Thanks for saying that!

And indeed I do.

Fair enough!

P.S. Nice job.